Future Shapers: “I could take my earplugs out, as there was no noise when the pile was driven”

Product commercialisation

From the moment Stas saw the new method of pile driving, he recognised its potential: “I immediately knew I witnessed something special that was not done before. I told Andrei that his innovation must be commercialized.” Stas first met Andrei as his supervisor when he started his PhD in Civil Engineering at TU Delft. They stayed in close contact while Stas worked in the industry, and it was Andrei who invited Stas to the test site. “[Andrei] had no time on his hands due to other obligations at TU Delft, where he is a professor, a department head, so he is heavily involved in projects for several domains. He gave me his blessings to commercialize his idea. In November 2022, I co-founded the company and became CEO of Vibrotwist. I was exactly at that stage in my career where it felt right to take the next step.”

Learning the hard way

Stas already had experience as an entrepreneur and has years of experience in the industry. However, founding a company differs from running a small private business, and certainly differs from a regular job in a company, so Stas was open to all the help he could get. That is when he learned his first business lesson: in the business environment relying just on a trust is a recipe to fail. The negotiations with investors took a long time and he found out not everyone was fully aligned with his vision for the long-term company development as they pretended to be beforehand. Now, he is more cautious of whom he shares his ideas with: “I have spoken to other entrepreneurs who have warned me about this kind of situation and when it happened, I was glad I recognized the signs and learned how to do things right.”

Receiving a lot of support

On the other hand, Vibrotwist received a lot of interest and support from industry partners; ranging from equipment manufacturers to contractors and project developers. This includes financial support and expertise for the further development of the innovation. Stas was impressed by all the attention once he shared details about the impact of the technology. It addresses the growing challenge for the offshore industry and people want to know more about the concept. He was granted a two-year fellowship from the Faculty of Impact (part of NWO), a national program for scientists who want to turn their research into a business. Next to that he got help from the Thematic Technology Transfer program (supported by RVO) with validating the product. Stas adds: “The company benefited greatly from all the support we received. I would like to mention that speaking some better Dutch would have helped me to move even quicker. Networking is very important if you seek investors and want to learn from other entrepreneurs. And you must speak the same language in all senses of this word.”

Next steps towards success

In a couple of years, Stas wants to team up with wind farm developers and realize a large project for the offshore industry: “The chances to win a tender go up if we can collaborate with these developers. We own the intellectual property and with the help of an industrial partner – Ampelmann – we bring the products to market.” This means the team of Vibrotwist also needs to grow. “With at least two more engineers”, says Stas who is now doing everything by himself. This was another challenge he faced in building the company and the reason why he chose to work with Ampelmann. He now focuses on the technology and further development, whereas Ampelmann covers the production and marketing for the product. Vibrotwist has an investment deal with the company, which means Stas shares the technology and Ampelmann is the equipment supplier. Stas concludes: “We keep on demonstrating the GDP technique and share our research and test results with relevant stakeholders to eventually start our first commercial project.”